


Down With the Ship

by bloodspatteredprincess



Category: Dracula - Bram Stoker, bbc-Dracula
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23623657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodspatteredprincess/pseuds/bloodspatteredprincess
Summary: Agatha wasn’t too terribly impressed by Captain Yuri Soklov when she first met him, but she did always find the ability to navigate the ocean with only the stars and a compass to be a tremendous skill. However, he could not calm his passengers and crew during the vampire crisis which they faced before she ordered his men to pin Dracula to the deck so that she could set him ablaze with only spilled rum and a single lantern. She did find the captain’s compassion to be undeniable.
Relationships: Agatha Van Helsing/Captain Soklov, Dracula/Agatha Van Helsing
Kudos: 28





	Down With the Ship

Agatha wasn’t too terribly impressed by Captain Yuri Soklov when she first met him, but she did always find the ability to navigate the ocean with only the stars and a compass to be a tremendous skill. However, he could not calm his passengers and crew during the vampire crisis which they faced before she ordered his men to pin Dracula to the deck so that she could set him ablaze with only spilled rum and a single lantern. She did find the captain’s compassion to be undeniable.

After the vampire had jumped ship in a blazing inferno, she found herself feeling as though her life no longer had meaning, leaning up against the taffrail with her hands folded in front of her. Agatha Van Helsing stared down into the inky abyss beneath the ship for the rest of the evening. She ignored Olgaren as he invited her down to dinner with the remainder of the crew, but she just couldn’t bring herself away from the water even as the night grew dark and cold and her body shivered. She just knew that the death of Dracula had come too easy. There was no way this fight was over just yet.

A soft weight over her arms, shoulders, and back drew her out of her trance of contemplation. She blinked in rapid succession to adjust her eyes to the figure before her and away from the nothingness below the vessel. She was met with the kind eyes of the captain who had shed his coat and placed it over her shoulders, “You’ve been shivering for hours. If you don’t plan on coming below deck where it’s warmer, you’ll need a coat.”

Agatha gave the captain a small smile before glancing back down at the water, a bubble catching her eye, “Thank you, Captain. You are too kind.” Her eyes were drawn back to the emptiness around the Demeter, a week away from England. She felt the captain stand closer to her as he stared out over the sea with her. She only noticed how close he was when a rough wave knocked her a bit off-balance, sending her hand colliding with his own as she fumbled for balance. Nuns were not known for having sea-legs. She gave a nervous laugh before pulling away, standing further from him just to regain herself. Just because Dracula was not within her sight did not mean he was gone. Agatha could not afford the distraction before her even though Soklov’s hand was so warm against her own which still shook from lack of nutrition; Dracula hadn’t exactly maintained her health as he fed on her.

She had returned the captain’s woolen coat to him over breakfast the next morning, giving him a curt acknowledgment before heading below to where the single box of Transylvanian soil lays. She had to be sure Dracula would not come back. If he did, he would need a bed of his earth to revive him. Agatha had to make sure his revival did not happen. This was a mess she had allowed the vampire to create when she offered him her neck who-knows-how-long-ago. She had to be sure to clean it up now. England had to be protected. The surviving members of this crew had to be protected and she was the only one who could do it.

She was easily startled these days aboard the ship, constantly jumping at any noise below a reasonable and respectable decibel. She nearly came out of her skin every time Soklov knocked on the wall of the storage cabin to let her know he was there before sitting next to her as she stared blankly into the box of soil at her feet. He would sit with her for hours in silence, but she could feel his eyes on her. It was no secret that the captain found her attractive. She had overheard Piotr and Olgaren whispering during dinner a few nights ago, confirming her suspicions, but she had no plans to act on any of this. She was a nun even though she was not devoted to her god and her convent was destroyed. There were other convents she could join if only she was ignorant to the fact that her fingernails were falling off and that she no longer felt her heart beating in her chest, so she gave the captain a warm smile as she caught him studying her face while she studied the box of earth.

She cursed the captain under her breath after he would escort her back to her cabin late at night after the two spent hours staring at the sea together. He had a certain charm about him that she could not ignore, but the scent of the vampire that lingered on her sheets from the time he spent in her bed while he drank her. As her head hit the lumpy pillow and she was overcome by the scent of Dracula, she forgot about the captain and dreamed of her captor. Maybe this was just the normal attachment one feels towards the person who captured them from the world. Maybe it was her obsession with understanding Dracula. Her nights and dreams were filled with the vampire, but her days were filled with the captain who had never hurt her or drank her blood or tried to have her falsely hanged for murders she did not commit. Yuri Soklov was a good man, but he was not intriguing.

The moment Soklov pulled her into an embrace after she insisted he and the crew escape so she could sink the ship and end her life Agatha protested, but she did not pull away. “I’m a nun,” she insisted as she rested her nose against the rough wool coat he had lent her on countless occasions to protect her from the chill of the sea air. She did not wrap her arms around him like she wanted to even though she wanted to so badly. It had been so long since she had felt physical affection. She was so young when she devoted herself to the life of a nun that she hardly remembered what it felt like to be so closer to a man like this. The hug was innocent and tender and she allowed herself to give in as his soft words floated around them.

Agatha watched the lifeboat Yuri and the other sailed away from the ship on. She watched as the light from the lantern they carried became smaller and duller as the distance between them continued to grow. She had never felt so alone as she did at that moment and she longed for the weight of Yuri’s coat on her shoulders as she shivered, making her way to Dracula’s cabin, cabin 7. She was only a few hours away from England, so she would need to light her make-shift explosives soon if she planned on preventing the ship from reaching shore. There was a knot in her stomach and she knew this meant her death, a permanent one she hoped. Would the explosion kill her or would she drown? She did not know and she did not care.

Though the knock on the door started her, she could not have been more relieved to see Soklov standing before her. She wanted to rush to him and throw her arms around his shoulders just to feel alive before she ultimately died. Perhaps the fact that he cared for her would make this an easier task. She wouldn’t have to die alone and she would die with someone she cared about as well. Agatha was not sure if she found him attractive, but she knew she liked his company. It had been so long since she had found herself genuinely attracted to a man that she did not know what it felt like anymore. Perhaps that’s why the smell of Dracula that was so present in this cabin gave her a sense of relaxation. Maybe she was attracted to him? She just didn’t know.

“I learned a long time ago that the captain must go down with the ship,” Yuri smiled at her. His presence allowed her to relax now. She could focus on the task at hand without being afraid. She had him at her side and that was enough for her, so she agreed to a drink on the deck with him. If he were to be her partner in death, then she would allow him to be her partner in her final moments of life. She watched him leave the room with a warm smile just for him before she was hit with a heavy truth she had never expected to find. The mattress beneath her concealed a thick layer of soil that matched the one below deck and she knew what was going to happen next before it did. Her heart would have been racing if it were beating, “Soklov, he’s alive!” 

A nauseating squelch filled her ears as the sole of her shoe squished in the puddle of blood that surrounded the captain. Her heart broke inside of her undead chest and tears welled in her eyes as she noted the large chunk of the captain’s throat laying a meter from his limp form, “But, I’m afraid Soklov isn’t.” Agatha met the red eyes of the vampire who now clutched the bottle of wine the captain had presented to her not five minutes before, “I hope I make for a reasonable substitute.” She could not hide the look of disgust the fell over her features when the vampire left her sight, kneeling beside the captain to close his eyes with her trembling fingers. Fear rose in her frame and dying at the hands of Dracula and becoming his bride became a real threat, but the hand the grasped her wrist as she touched Yuri’s face brought her back to reality and the plan she had wanted to see through for the past week, “Keep him talking.”

Idle chatter with the vampire came easy enough. Dracula was intelligent and every bit her intellectual equal, so going back and forth with him allowed for ample time for the captain to make his way below deck and light the fuse, but Agatha knew not to get her hopes up. Yuri was in such bad shape and she knew she must accept her fate however it may come, but she would not stop until Dracula put to an end even if that meant playing the role of bride. A moment of excitement and relief rocked through her as the bow burst into flames before sadness took its place as she knew that Yuri was surly dead now, the explosion too big for the one who ignited it to survive. She surrendered herself as Dracula threw her to the floor to find an escape, knowing that he would not be able to make his way to shore.

Agatha closed her eyes and accepted death as water surged around her floating and limp frame. Maybe this was a noble death now, not a suicide that her god would not forgive her for committing. She only tried to make out her soggy surroundings when something grazed her hand which floated above her head, surrounded in a halo of her hair. Her head shifted to the side, catching the wide-open eyes of Captain Yuri Soklov. As her eyes met him, she knew he was not staring back at her, his gaze blank, lifeless. She grabbed a hold of his hand which had brought her back to the reality that she was going to drown. Her grip on him was tight as she stared at his face, making out his features with the help of the light emitted from the fire above them before taking in a helpless gulp of air. As water filled her lungs, she felt as though she were being burned from the inside-out. The only thing that kept her grounded were the fingers of the captain tucked neatly between her own.


End file.
